IT WAS 25 years ago when a newspaper asked me what I would like for Christmas. I was Watford manager at the time and I replied: “I would like all football agents lined up and shot.”

Juan Pablo Angel's £9.6m move to Villa caused a stir, with only £3m going to his club []

Unsurprisingly, it caused quite a bit of controversy. I’m able to take a more balanced view now I am no longer a manager, so if asked again I would say: “I don’t think all agents should be shot – just most of them!”

Of course, I do not mean that literally, but there are far too many agents whose only concern is to use their players to make money for themselves.

The Wayne Rooney saga brought the role of his agent, Paul Stretford, into focus. I am not party to all the facts of Rooney’s new contract, so it is difficult for me to make judgments on that case. But what we can safely assume is that, no matter what Manchester United or Sir Alex Ferguson may think, Rooney will believe Stretford has done a wonderful job in getting him a big pay rise, and Stretford will be happy with his cut.

I first met agents in the late Seventies and early Eighties, but things were very different back then. They were not really making any demands or getting involved, other than ensuring the players’ welfare was being looked after. But when football changed from being a sport to a business with the formation of the Premier League in 1992, and the money began pumping in from Sky television, the role of agents suddenly became very different.

During my second spell at Watford, I signed a foreign player whose agent convinced me he was FIFA licensed. It turned out he wasn’t, so I cancelled the cheque to the agent and signed the player anyway.

Subsequently, however, I found out that the unlicensed agent had simply hired a licensed agent to complete the transfer for us and had still got his fee – minus 10 per cent.

When Aston Villa bought Juan Pablo Angel for £9.6 million, they were required to pay the Colombian FA to disperse the money. Only £3m went to the selling club, River Plate, but where did the other £6.3m go? I don’t think Villa ever found out.

I believe both of those cases highlight the fact that clubs should not pay third parties. It should be down to the player to pay his agent and once they receive the invoices, they might just start to wonder whether the agents are doing such a good job.

While I was Villa boss, I used to tell my players, ‘Come in and listen to our first contract offer on your own, then go away and speak to your agent. If he comes in and then gets you a better deal, then just pay him the difference of what we were initially offering’.

Of course, most of the lads had already signed contracts with agents so my advice was largely ignored. But the agent has only done his job once he gets his player a better deal – he should not be involved to start with.

If a player is playing well, enjoying his football and earning a good wage, then the agent should not be looking for a move. If the team is not doing well, but the player is playing well, then the move will come, and if the club is doing well then the agent should not be creating problems.

It should be the player who is central to everything else. But, far too often now, it is the agent who controls everything else.

When you are a manager you make a mental note of the agents you do not like to deal with. I decided against signing several players because I did not want to get involved with the guys who were representing them.

There are good and bad agents, and parents can be just as destructive. I can think of one player whose career has gone downhill fairly quickly since his dad started looking after him.

Dads who quit their jobs to become their son’s representative need to ask themselves if they are in it for the player’s welfare or for their own financial benefit. They must also be prepared to take an objective view on what is best for their son’s development.

There is no quickfire solution, as I suggested all those years ago, to the problems with agents.

But there is no doubt there is an awful lot of room for improvement.

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